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From The New International, Vol. XXII No. 2, Summer 1956, p. 136.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
An Introduction to American Foreign Policy
by Edgar S. Furniss, Jr., and Richard C. Snyder
Rinehart, 252 pp. $4.00.
In concluding their study of American foreign policy, the authors, both university professors, look for solutions in the realm of personnel, organization, and relationships between the State Department and other departments of government. Despite this limited outlook, readers will be interested in their peculiarly academic manner of portraying the shift in emphasis from politics and social policy toward military force.
“A second type of change,” they write, “has occurred in the older agencies charged with foreign policy determination and execution. It has reflected shifts in priorities assigned to various foreign-policy determination and execution. It has reflected shifts in priorities assigned to various foreign-policy techniques and can be illustrated by comparing the fortunes of the State Department (diplomatic) with those of the Defense Department (military).The former has suffered from a variety of disadvantages, some related to disputes over its role in the policy-making process as just mentioned, others over doubts concerning the loyalty of its personnel, still others reflecting the desire to find a scapegoat for a deteriorating international situation. There still remains the fact, however, that confidence in the diplomatic technique as such has waned as the technique has failed to remove the Russian menace or to create by itself alone the necessary strength in the free world ... As the State Department declined in effectiveness, that of the Defense Department rose.”
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Last updated on 21 October 2019